R E P O RT ...............................................................................................

Evaluation of a Preschool Nutrition Education Program Based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
K AT H E R I N E L. C A S O N
Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-2504

ABSTRACT This report describes the evaluation of a preschool nutrition education program based on the theory of multiple intelligences. Forty-six nutrition educators provided a series of 12 lessons to 6102 preschool-age children.The program was evaluated using a pretest/post-test design to assess differences in fruit and vegetable identification, healthy snack choices, willingness to taste foods, and eating behaviors. Subjects showed significant improvement in food identification and recognition, healthy snack identification, willingness to taste foods, and frequency of fruit, vegetable, meat, and dairy consumption. The evaluation indicates that the program was an effective approach for educating preschool children about nutrition. (JNE 33:161164, 2001)

INTRODUCTION Nutrition educators play an important role in helping children learn about food and nutrition and to develop healthy eating habits.The literature provides educators with an excellent portrait of nutrition education programs for preschool children.17 The majority of these reports, papers, and studies suggest that for nutrition education to be effective with the young child, it must be developmentally appropriate, focused on relevant problems, behavior change oriented, activity based, and learner centered and must employ social and developmental learning strategies.1,39 Multiple intelligences theory. The recommendations from the research coincide with the general understanding of human development researchers who assert that children grow and develop as a whole, not one dimension at a time or at the same rate in each dimension, and learn through active involvement using instructional practices that address their social, emotional, physical, aesthetic, and intellectual
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Address for correspondence: Katherine L. Cason, Ph.D., R.D., Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 203B Borland Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802-2504;Tel: (814) 865-9288; Fax: (814) 863-6132; E-mail: klc13@psu.edu. 2001 SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION

needs.10 Nutrition education programs have emphasized various behavioral approaches to learning and the environment.11 One of the most extensively used theoretical models, social learning theory, focuses on external manipulations of the environment and the individual to achieve healthful behaviors. Researchers have explored other theories, such as the dynamic systems theory and the multiple intelligences theory, to help them comprehend more about the internal processes that determine behavior.11,12 The dynamic systems theory views development as an intricate internal process in which the individual interacts with the learning task and the environment in a way that results in external behavior changes.13 The theory of multiple intelligences is a theory of learning that further attempts to explain the process by which individuals effectively interact with the task and the environment.10 Multiple intelligences theory may be described as a philosophy of education, an attitude toward learning, rather than a set program of xed techniques and strategies. It offers educators a broad opportunity to creatively adapt its fundamental principles to any number of educational settings.14 Teachers in this setting value the whole child, focus on the strengths of each individual, and provide learning experiences that stimulate growth in the eight intelligences.10 According to Gardner et al., there are eight intelligences, distinct ways that people learn and know about reality: interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalist, and spatial-visual.15,16 On one level, multiple intelligences theory applied to curriculum might be represented by a loose and diverse collection of teaching strategies. However, the theory also provides a context within which educators can address any skill, content area, theme, or instructional objective and develop at least eight ways to teach it. Multiple intelligences theory offers a means of building lesson plans, themes, and programs in such a way that all students can have their strongest intelligences addressed some of the time.14 Educators suggest that by using the multiple intelligences theory as a basis for teaching, student learning may be enhanced.10,14,17
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DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION The population for the study was 10,213 children who were enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP). The subjects selected for this study were those who completed a pre- and a post-test survey. Therefore, the sample for this study consisted of 6102 preschool children attending 229 daycare facilities in 36 counties in a Southern state. The racial distribution of the subjects was 3844 (63%) African Americans and 2258 (37%) Caucasians. Children ranged in age from 36 months to 67 months, with a mean ( standard error of the mean) age of 52 1.9 months. Forty-nine percent of the children were male. A developmentally appropriate, learner-centered, multiple intelligences theory-based curriculum for preschool children was developed by faculty with expertise in nutrition and early childhood education. The curriculum was developed around the core topics of healthy snacking, fruit and vegetable identication, and the Food Guide Pyramid.The curriculum consists of the following components: description of multiple intelligences, a list of activities to conduct for each intelligence as a subcategory for each topic, a planning guide for conducting lessons, and the evaluation instruments.The expected educational outcomes included increased nutrition knowledge and improved attitudes and food behavior of preschool children. Three training sessions, each 6 hours in length, were provided by these faculty to all 46 paraprofessional nutrition educators employed by the USDA FSNEP in 36 counties in a Southern state.Training topics included the multiple intelligences theory, how to implement this theory in the daycare setting, nutrition for preschool children, and application of the curriculum.The training sessions were provided to ensure uniformity of program delivery. The paraprofessional nutrition educators made personal contact with daycare center providers, provided a description of the nutrition education program, and, if the providers agreed to allow nutrition education to be provided to the children, scheduled the educational sessions. The nutrition educators provided a series of 12 lessons to groups of preschool-age children in daycare settings.The lessons averaged 40 minutes in length, were provided every 2 weeks, and were delivered to groups, averaging 18 children per group. Prior to the implementation of this curriculum, the nutrition educators used components of other preschool nutrition education curriculum in daycare settings, selecting those activities that they enjoyed and were easiest to implement. Most lessons included reading a book and tasting foods but seldom incorporated music, art, or dramatic play.The adoption of the curriculum and participation in the training sessions enabled the nutrition educators to provide lessons that incorporated activities in several categories of intelligence. The nutrition educators were provided with a schedule of planned activities to ensure that activities from three intelli-

gence categories were conducted per session and that activities from all categories were used four or more times during the series.The objectives of the educational program were to enable preschool children to identify nutritious snack foods, identify and name fruits and vegetables, increase willingness to taste fruits and vegetables, help prepare and consume nutritious foods using developmentally appropriate practices, and acquire behaviors that contribute to nutritionally sound food choices and a healthy lifestyle.

PROGRAM EVALUATION The assessment of the success of educational programming in changing the level of nutrition knowledge and food choices of children included outcome evaluations of the children and parent surveys.The study employed a pretest/posttest design. Data were collected from the children by means of a fourpage pictorial knowledge and attitude instrument. The instrument was developed to reect the content of the projects nutrition messages. Face validity of the instrument was assessed through review by a panel of experts and a pilot test conducted in two other states with 1297 children.The reliability of the instrument was assessed using a testretest method (instrument was administered twice with this group, 1 week apart) with a group of 93 preschool children not involved in the study.18 Approximately 79% of the responses to each item were consistent, which was considered acceptable for the preschool-age child. The nal instrument contained the following sections: identication of fruits and vegetables, identication of the healthiest snack, and a measure of willingness to taste certain foods. The instrument was administered by the nutrition educator with the children in a group setting. The pretest was administered prior to the initiation of the rst lessons, and the post-test was administered at the end of the twelfth lesson. The educator read simple instructions such as Circle the vegetables, and the children independently made their selections on their page containing color pictures of foods. Information about the eating habits and food attitudes of the children was obtained from parents prior to implementation of the curriculum and after implementation. The readability and clarity of survey questions were assessed by review of a panel of experts and through pilot testing with a group of 123 parents of preschoolers.The instrument administered to parents included a food frequency questionnaire and a pictorial assessment of the food likes of the child participating in the study.The daycare providers sent the survey home with the children with a note explaining the purpose of the survey.The surveys were returned to the daycare center, collected by the nutrition educator, and mailed to the researcher for compilation. Data collected in the project were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS),Version 8.0 for Windows.19 Paired-samples t-tests were used to compare

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mean pretest scores for knowledge, attitude, and behavior to the mean post-test scores. Levels of statistical signicance were determined at the .01 level.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE The results from this study indicate that preschoolers can learn the names of different foods and in which food group they belong and that some foods are healthier for them than others. Children reported an increased willingness to taste different foods. Parents surveys pre- and postintervention indicated that children increased consumption of foods in the ve food groups and decreased consumption in the fats, oils, and sweets section of the Food Guide Pyramid.The overall positive results of the impact evaluation indicate that when this curriculum was used, preschoolers increased knowledge about foods and food groups and improved food and nutrition behaviors. The significant increase in the childrens knowledge and food selection consistent with the educational goals of the curriculum was an encouraging outcome. However, the study was limited by the fact that there was no control or comparison group. Future research is needed that randomly assigns children to control and treatment groups.This study design would enable researchers to more accurately assess if the differences seen in post-test scores are a result of the educational package. This would also allow educators to make more informed choices about curriculum and program delivery techniques (i.e., whether programs based on the theory of multiple intelligences are more effective than other types of curriculum). Forty percent (4111) of the children in the FSNEP study population did not have postintervention assessments. Comparisons of the pretest scores of the sample population (6102) and this group indicate no signicant differences in knowledge or behavior. However, it is not known if this groups postassessment scores were signicantly different.This could have altered the study results signicantly. The study also did not address the effects of teacher and classroom structure variables. Although each educator attended the same training sessions and used the same teaching techniques, variance in program delivery existed. There may have been differences from classroom to classroom in such factors as the number of children participating in an activity, the age of the children, the time of day of the educational activities, and any follow-up or reinforcement of the daycare providers. Although the same activities were presented, they may not have been presented in the same

OBSERVATIONS In this program, multiple intelligences teaching strategies were used to educate preschool-age children about healthy eating.The curriculum incorporated activities in each category of intelligence and included stories, books, cassettes, videotapes, cooking, eld trips, games, posters, discussions, computer lessons, tasting parties, songs, puzzles, art projects, role playing, skits, and puppets. Developmentally appropriate materials were used, and the activity-based learning experience facilitated acquisition of food and nutrition concepts. The children completed pre- and post-tests of knowledge, which consisted of fruit, vegetable, and healthiest snacks identication.Table 1 documents mean knowledge scores pre and post nutrition education. Children correctly identied signicantly more fruits, vegetables, and healthy snack choices at the post-test. Children indicated an increased willingness to taste foods at the post-test. A parent survey provided pertinent information regarding how often the children consume fruits and vegetables and also on the food likes and dislikes of the children. Table 2 shows differences in food intake pre and post nutrition education. Parental reports on the intakes of children pre and post intervention showed that the children increased fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, and bread consumption while slightly decreasing consumption of foods from the fats, oils, and sweets section, the tip of the Food Guide Pyramid.The number of fruits the children liked increased, with the favorites being apples, bananas, and strawberries.The number of vegetables the children liked increased, with the favorite vegetables being corn, carrots, and potatoes. The data were analyzed to assess if outcome differences existed between race, gender, and age groups of participants. Small, nonstatistically significant differences were noted between the 3-year-old and the 5-year-old group, with the 5-year-old groups postintervention scores being slightly more positive. There were no statistically signicant differences in outcomes between genders or racial groups.

Table 1.

Differences in knowledge and attitudes of children after a series of nutrition education lessons (N = 6102). Pretest Post-test Mean (SD) 7.8 (.56) 9.8 (.69) 12.9 (.48) 6.7 (.49) Mean Difference 3.2 4.6 9.5 4.2 t Value 2.76* 3.21* 6.89** 3.04*

Measure Vegetable identification Fruit identification Willingness to taste foods Healthy snack identification *p .01, **p .001.

Possible Score 10 10 15 7

Mean (SD) 4.6 (.59) 5.2 (.67) 3.4 (.47) 2.5 (.52)

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Table 2.

Cason/EVALUATION OF A PRESCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION PROGRAM

Differences in food intake of children (as reported by parents) after a series of nutrition education lessons (N = 6102). Pretest Post-test Mean (SD) 2.68 (1.79) 2.36 (1.54) 3.75 (3.93) 7.25 (3.95) 3.94 (2.86) 9.33 (11.45) 6.46 (3.91) 4.42 (2.29) Mean Difference 0.60 1.37 1.74 1.33 1.89 1.29 1.92 1.40 t Value 3.96* 7.52** 8.36** 7.44** 8.90** 6.98** 8.93** 7.69**

Food Group Servings Servings meat Servings dairy Servings vegetables Servings bread Servings fruit Servings other Number of fruits child likes Number of vegetables child likes *p .01, **p .001.

Mean (SD) 2.08 (1.56) 0.99 (1.32) 2.01 (2.87) 5.92 (3.43) 2.05 (4.45) 10.62 (12.7) 4.54 (3.23) 3.02 (2.56)

sequence in each daycare center. Deviations from the pattern may also have changed the impact of the program.Teachers may also have altered the curriculum delivery for different age groups reached.The potential effect of these variables on the outcomes was not assessed.Additional studies are needed to evaluate differences resulting from these variables. The program was implemented with children from limited-resource families residing in a Southern state. Since the subjects represented a specic population, the results from the study cannot be generalized beyond this group. More studies are needed with children from more diverse cultures and with different socioeconomic backgrounds. The potential long-term effects of attempts to modify childrens foodrelated attitudes, knowledge, and eating behaviors were not evaluated.A longitudinal study would be needed to substantiate the effectiveness of this educational program.

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